Mehdi Hasan has a fascinating look at how Ron DeSantis, driven by his own political ambition, did a U-turn on his mainstream positions on covid and vaccines. It's long, but well worth your time.

In the meantime, here's Michael Cohen, MSNBC columnist, writing last year how the DeSantis decision to attack vaccines predictably led to increased covid deaths in Florida:

Make no mistake, the governor’s cynical actions will cost lives. An analysis from Brown University’s School of Public Health found that more than half the Covid deaths in Florida from January 2021 to April this year could have been prevented had those individuals gotten vaccinated. In fact, according to the Brown study, Florida is 13th per capita in preventable Covid deaths — a ranking undoubtedly influenced by DeSantis’ laissez-faire approach to the pandemic compared to other states. And according to a recent study by two Yale School of Public Health professors, “excess deaths during the pandemic were 76% higher among Republicans than Democrats in two states, Ohio and Florida.” Moreover, “the partisan gap in death rates increased significantly after vaccines were introduced.”